With the announcement that The Flash will be appearing in the second season of the hit show Arrow and that after that he will have a series of his own, executive producers and writers of Arrow Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns participated in a conference call with the press to talk about what viewers can expect.
Question: With as vast as the DC universe is, why did
you decide to bring in The Flash, and had you considered any other characters?
ANDREW
KREISBERG: It really started with Greg
Berlanti. The Flash was his favorite
character, as a kid, growing up, and he’s obviously been a strong personal
favorite of both Geoff [Johns] and mine.
So, when Greg approached us, one day, and said, “Hey, what would you
think, if we did The Flash as a spin-off?,” all of us lit up. Despite the fact that he’s got superpowers, I
think there’s something relatable about Barry, of the big seven of The Justice
League. He got his powers by
accident. He isn’t a God. He isn’t an alien. He wasn’t seeking this out. It came to him. And his reactions to that feel very human and
grounded. I know that’s a word we use a
lot on Arrow, but that’s how it really feels.
Oliver Queen is a very dark and tortured soul, and Barry is not. I think it will be fun to see these two
characters together because they both have distinctly different world views
while both caring very deeply about right and wrong.
GEOFF
JOHNS: There’s also something really
compelling about Barry Allen’s personal story.
You see some of that in the comic books, but we’ll really be exploring
his life as a forensic scientist and the people around him and the tragedies that
he’s had to face, himself, and how he deals with them in a very, very different
way than Oliver Queen.
How
are you going to fit The Flash into the Arrow world?
KREISBERG: When we first meet Barry Allen, he’s just a
forensic scientist working for the police department. He’s just an ordinary man, when we meet
him. As we always do on Arrow, we try to
keep things as grounded and realistic as possible. That’s how the audience will be introduced to
Barry and get to know him, before his life gets a little bit faster.
Barry
won’t be entering Arrow with powers, but will he be leaving with powers?
KREISBERG: I think part of the fun for the audience is
to see how we do our “Arrow” take on The Flash legacy. I think some of it will feel very familiar to
fans of the comics, and some of it will feel hopefully different, but fresh and
exciting. The same way we approached
Arrow is the same way we’re approaching Barry.
JOHNS: All that said, he does need powers to become
The Flash.
KREISBERG: He will be The Flash.
Is
this going to mean an introduction of powers in the Arrow universe, in a
broader context, as well?
JOHNS: We looked at it as Barry Allen. When he first appeared back in the ‘50s, he
ushered in the Silver Age of DC superheroes.
In the same way, he’s going to usher in some new and pretty insane
concepts to the Arrow world, but in a very grounded way.
KREISBERG: The important thing is that our characters,
who people have really come to know and like, will react to the extraordinary
changes to their world, hopefully in a very realistic way. These “powers” won’t be treated as
commonplace, on the show. They will be
extraordinary events and the world, and our characters in it, will react
accordingly.
The
Flash doesn’t go the way you hope and it doesn’t get picked up as a series, would
you keep him in the Arrow universe?
KREISBERG: Honestly, we’re really not looking that far
ahead. For right now, we’re really just
focusing on these episodes of Arrow that Barry Allen is partaking in. For this season, especially, this is in
addition to Arrow. We’re not trying to
take away anything from Arrow. We’re
really trying to add to Arrow. So, for
right now, that’s our singular focus.
JOHNS: We’re really focusing on making these
episodes the very, very best they can be.
The Flash deserves it.
Will
Oliver have direct interaction with Barry, and will there be friction there,
like in the comic books?
KREISBERG: Oh, yeah, absolutely! That’s part of the reason we’re excited about
doing this. As excited as we are to
write for Barry, we’re really excited about what Barry’s arrival is going to
mean for Oliver, for Dig for Felicity and everybody. He’s a great character, who’s going to affect
all of our characters’ lives.
JOHNS: Barry is a cop. He follows the law. He follows the rules. He’s the last thing in the world you would
ever think about as being a vigilante.
KREISBERG: What’s really nice is that they’re both going
to learn from each other. When Barry
comes into Oliver’s life, he’s going to have a profound impact on it. We always talk about the villains. We don’t do these things as gimmicks. We figure out what it’s going to mean for our
characters and what the most exciting story is that we can tell with our
characters. For this season, especially
as Oliver is embarking on a new mission of trying to be a hero, he comes into
contact with somebody who, as much as Oliver thinks he’s now being a hero,
Barry won’t always think that.
KREISBERG: For right now, because you’re just meeting
Barry Allen, CSI, we’re not really focusing on potential costumes, or that
stuff. That’s further down the road. We’re going to do what we did when we started
with Arrow, which is hopefully write a great script and look for an amazing
actor to play the part.
How
many episodes will Barry be in?
KREISBERG: He’ll appear in Episode 8 and 9, and 20.
JOHNS: Episode 20 will be directed by David Nutter.
David
Nutter directed “The Red Wedding” episode for Game of Thrones. Should viewers expect big things from that
Arrow episode, then?
JOHNS: First off, that was one of the greatest
episode of television this year, and Game of Thrones is one of the greatest
shows.
KREISBERG: And he definitively deserved an Emmy
nomination.
JOHNS: David Nutter is a fantastic director.
KREISBERG: He did the pilot for Smallville, and he also
did the pilot for Arrow, so it feels right that he’s doing that episode. As much as people talk about Greg [Berlanti],
Marc [Guggenheim] and I for Arrow, David really made it what it was with his
amazing direction and his unparalleled advice and leadership.
Who
will be writing Episodes 8, 9 and 20?
KREISBERG: Episodes 8, 9 and 20 are going to be written
by Greg Berlanti, myself and Geoff [Johns].
Have
you given any thought as to how you will render super-speed, when it comes to
be?
JOHNS: It will be very different. It will not be blurring around. It will be very different.
KREISBERG: I think we’re excited to show something new
that people have never seen. We don’t
want to do something that people expect or what they’ve already seen. We really want to do something fresh and new
and exciting, and give people a real cinematic experience in TV, in the same
way that they’ve gotten from Arrow.
JOHNS: There’s also some wonderful visuals in The
Flash comic book, currently, that we’re looking at because they’re really
inspiring. Also, there’s a DC animated
film, called Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and there’s some sequences
in there. I’ve never seen super-speed
like that before, especially towards the end.
We’re getting inspired by every incarnation of The Flash, everywhere,
and beyond that.
KREISBERG: No, we were actually waiting for the news to
come out. We really want to open this up
to everybody, and see some people who are “names” and unknown people. It would have been difficult to look for an
actor and say, “Oh, yeah, you’re guest starring on Arrow, but we can’t tell you
who it is.” This way, everybody knows
now, and we can really start in earnest.
David Rapaport, who cast the Arrow pilot, is going to be casting this,
so we feel like we’re in good hands.
How
physical is the role going to be?
JOHNS: Physically, it’s going to be different than
Arrow. Barry Allen isn’t typically a
very physical guy. That said, he’s got
to be athletic. He’s going to be running
around buildings and through walls, but he won’t have to do those crazy
pull-ups.
KREISBERG:
Nobody can do the crazy pull-ups, but Stephen [Amell].
JOHNS: I think Green Arrow might show off in front
of Barry Allen.
And
just to clarify, at the end of the day, this character will go by the name The
Flash and he will wear a red costume?
JOHNS: Yes, absolutely! There will be no sweatsuits or strange code
names. He will be The Flash.
Are
there plans to involve any other characters from Barry Allen’s universe, in his
Arrow appearances?
KREISBERG: That’s interesting. Episodes 8 and 9 will take place in Starling
City, which Barry has come to. I think
Episode 20 will be a bigger introduction to Barry’s world. Those first episodes are really Barry coming
to the Arrow world.
JOHNS: So, ultimately, yes. In Episode 20, you will see Barry Allen and
The Flash’s world starting to form, in earnest.
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